TWitM: Arnaldo Hernandez earns league Pitcher of the Week honors

‘This Week in the Minors’ is our weekly look at notable performances from all over the system, from big-name prospects and less heralded guys alike. The mission is to answer this simple question: “Who had a good week?”

Today, we’ll cover results from Monday, August 13 through Sunday, August 19.

AAA Omaha Storm Chasers (58-67)

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The Pacific Coast League honored 22-year-old righty Arnaldo Hernandez with Pitcher of the Week honors, following his 9-inning complete game on Wednesday. He struck out six and did not walk anyone, and allowed just one run. Eighty (!) of his 97 pitches were strikes.

In that game, Elier Hernandez made quite a catch:

Right-hander Zachary Lovvorn also went fairly deep in his start this week, tossing seven solid innings on Saturday. Two runs scored on four hits.

Lefty Jonathan Dziedzic swung from one extreme to another in terms of results this week. In his Tuesday start, he pitched six shutout innings with six strikeouts and no walks, with seven hits allowed. That was good for a game score of 64 per B-Ref. His Sunday start, on the other hand, ended with a game score of -1. (No, that minus sign is not a typo.) That one ended after 3 ²⁄₃ innings, with 10 earned runs allowed on nine hits which included two home runs.

Humberto Arteaga has been added into the Omaha first base rotation since Ryan O’Hearn’s major league callup. At the plate this week, Arteaga went 9-for-22 with three doubles. He walked only once but also struck out only once.

Please sit down if you were not already, to prepare yourself for the news that first baseman Frank Schwindel hit a lot this week. He went 9-for-26 this week, plus five walks against just four strikeouts. He also hit four doubles to bring his season total to 33.

AA Northwest Arkansas Naturals (61-64 overall | 26-29 in second half)

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I promise you I am not copy and pasting the body of this column from one week to the next. The reason I have to promise you this is that left-hander Emilio Ogando pitched six shutout innings this week, which he also did last week and the week prior.

Third baseman Kelvin Gutierrez went 9-for-24 this week with a triple and his 5th homer since joining the Naturals via trade in June.

A-Adv. Wilmington Blue Rocks (60-65 overall | 29-26 in second half)

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Last week, I wrote this about Wilmington’s place in the standings:

“Wilmington is in first place by just a half a game over Lynchburg (CLE), but has plenty of time to expand that lead or lose it because there are seven Wilmington-Lynchburg matchups left this season.”

Readers, they lost the lead, along with all their games this week. Four of those losses were to Lynchburg, so suddenly the half-game lead Wilmington had is a five-game deficit.

Low-A Lexington Legends (69-53 overall | 32-22 in second half)

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The Legends still have a one-game lead in the South Atlantic League Southern division. Greenville and Asheville are both hanging right there in the thick of things.

Three pitchers who should be important in the next iteration of The Process did well this week:

• 18-year-old RHP Yefri Del Rosario made two starts, first pitching six shutout innings and then five shutout innings. He allowed just two hits in each game, but had to work around five walks in the second.
• With 58 pitches, righty Jackson Kowar struck out five batters in four shutout innings, and allowed just three hits and no walks.
• Lefty Daniel Lynch struck out eight (!) and walked just one in five innings without allowing an earned run. He allowed three hits, all singles.

Outfielder Kyle Isbel went 10-for-27 with a double and two homers this week, plus two stolen bases. Isbel, 21, was a third round draftee this summer and is hitting .321/.381/.491 in the 27 games since he was promoted from rookie ball to Lexington.

19-year-old catcher MJ Melendez doubled twice, tripled, and homered in his 9-hit week. He also walked three times and stole two bases. First baseman Nick Pratto hit his first triple of the season, along with a homer and a pair of doubles in an 8-for-24 week.

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Did you go to any minor league games this week? Who did you see, and who stood out?

RELATED READING: Royals Review editor/overlord Max Rieper wrote yesterday that the Kansas City farm system is improving, but has a long way to go.

BONUS:
Outfielder Brian Goodwin is rehabbing with Omaha, and had a two-homer game at Colorado Springs. Here is the second; watch his reaction out of the box.